Guild Wars 2

Thought it might be interesting to get some situational tricks of the trade for other players around common WvW scenarios. A lot of threads really tie to a specific trait/skill or build versus talking about specific roles and what a new player really needs to get accurate.

This would be more of a noob thread for players new to class or new to WvW.

I will post my thoughts later (time restraints now).

1) Camps- How do you solo them as quickly as possible?

2) Stacking Sigils- Where do you go?

3) Best solo roles for a zerg?

4) How often do you stay in particular kits?

5) When you roam with your engineer and a second toon, what class do you prefer the other player roams with?

6) What do you do differently with spec and skills:
a) taken a sieged up keep/tower etc
b) defending on the walls (assume you are not on siege obviously)
c) in a choke (bridge, arch etc)
d) Defending a set position (camp, lord room etc)?

Or are you a “set it and forget it” type of build/food/gear person?

6) How often do you switch gear, traits, food “on the fly” in a WvW environment, if you switch at all?
Do you create a build that specifically allows for such easy adjustments?
How many adjustments does it take (food, gear, traits) and how fast can you make
them?

7) What gear sets should the new player first acquire and how many do you really need?

8) Where did you practice specific skills (e.g. grenade tossing) to get the hang of them? How did you practice “playing the piano” of the engineer and getting all the potential combinations and reactions right given so many potential skills thru kits?

9) What is your survival strength and weaknesses (we cover condition cleansing a LOT on forum but talk to the newer player about where we really excel at defense)?

10) What is the one piece of advice you wish you were told as a new WvW engineer or one trick you are dying to tell the community you use in WvW?

1) corner+bombs/nades/ft – easy!
2)
3)
4) change 6 times a day
5) guard
6) b) switch to nades
6 again) rarely
7) dire-rabid or pvt-knight or celestrial
8) sPvP
9)
10) use Wolfineer’s site there a lot of tips, tricks and builds for anyone. the thing u r trying to do is already there!

1. Hide behind corner/wall/whatever to pull all mobs. Now granades and bombs hit all of them instead of 1-2.
2. Um, outside spawn? Stacking on players is the easiest – eventually taking camp over, but that’s rather for WvW stacks, not neceserly sigils.
3. Probably DPS granadier back-line.
4. Always less than 9 seconds (because sigil of battle), mostly swapping as often as possible whenever the “good” skills are off CD.
5. It all depends on your build. Whether it’s direct damage, condi, bombs or nades. I like mesmer, warrior or guardian. Don’t fancy ranger, necro, 2nd engi or thief.
6.
a) Waste of time doing silly PvE things for your own. When I’m with nades and see cannon in area i roam around, i will destroy it. With bombs or condi nades I don’t bother changing gear “just to destroy sieges”.
I take towers for my own with w/e build I’m currently using. SM and Keep – always changing to granades. How – well, when enemy server caps it I just hide inside hoping I won’t be spotted – works every second time
b) With whatever I’m using now. Nades – attacking from walls. Bombs – jumping down to drop few and back. Here just sometimes if it’s one ram and small group I actually might bother changing from bombs to nades if I feel like it will be more successful.
c)
d) Same as “b)” – with whatever I’m using right now.

XYZ – I have 3 sets, 3 builds crafted to suit my playstyle. Condi bombs, condi nades, direct damage nades. Nothing has been changed since the day I made them and nothing will as long the traits, items in the game are the same.

6. I switch whenever I feel like playing a little different or feel it will bring me more success when roaming (or to complement empty spaces for duo to get most out of it).
Making “builds to change it to different build” is waste of the current build you’re running. For me, it’s only moving 2 trait points to other tree no matter what and change one trait in other tree. Gear must be always changed and food remains the same only with condi build.

7. I have 3, of which two are rabid (different runes) and one knight. Zerker engi isn’t the best idea so the zerker gear goes away. Dire isn’t as good as many might think either. I’d say rabid is must for condi builds, knight/calestial for direct damage. That’s really enough.
8. I’m not PvE player (when I’m not forced to due lack of cash) so everything on every char I practiced was either s/tPvP and most importantly (like 99%) – WvW. And to answer second question – just think, that’s all it takes. Else you’re “mentally blind”, sooner or later you will start doing better.
9. Well, in comparsion to other engineers “i’m tanky as f**k”. I know what to use, when to use, can down players while I’m the one caring about my life running away. Outnumbered roaming is undoubtly my strength. As well can survive zerg attack and i’m doing best out of engineers mobility.
I’m not really afraid of conditions, but surely condi necros are pain. Can’t claim I don’t have any weakness, but nothing I could think of or consider something as one. There are situations where you just can’t do anything else.
Not sure whether or not I should consider it as weakness, but if I see group between 3-10 I for sure will give it a try for my own. Even when I know I won’t “win”, kiting, tanking, escaping and hopefully downing/killing some is what I consider as fun. Which of course often leads me to certain death, but oh well…
10. Might be laughable, but- don’t listen to other engineers on forum here. Sometimes some nice tips for noobies might be dropped, but most of things people are saying here are complete rubbish. Same goes for builds – nearly every time i facepalm reading topic about “great build”, OP saying “how great it is and how great he does with is” and I can’t stop thinking “yeah, I’d take you down within seconds”.
New players rather to use builds “made for their playstyle” which are mostly pretty bad and then they are surprised they aren’t doing well blaming it only on their skill and believing the build is flawless.

1) pull one npc the rest or most should follow, hide in the corner (LOS), then either blind or block the first few seconds bcuz they will CC the hell out of you, after that rain grenades and if bored pop that supply depot.
2)i never bother with sigils for roaming since you will still die(dont run as fast as a warrior or stealth as much as a thief), you can kill them but your no sprinter, if a group of 5+ focuses you your pretty much dead unless lucky. For Zerging just kill enemies on the go, +5 stacks per kill is easy.
3) i do zerg fights as range grenadier CC’er and melee bomb heals(oh yes you can survive that hammer train), both works but very different playstlye.
4) not long, i only use certain skills on certain fights i dont use them all because i might need to use others later on(ex. GK 2,4,5 switch….save 3 for needed blinds later if needed-its dps is bad so only use it for blind)
5) usually i solo roam, but your best friend is a guardian 2 things they have a lot of: 1. Aegis 2. Stability……this 2 things you will almost never have….ever.
6) simple…if your a range dps…stay with the range dps or rotate accordingly….if your bomb heals stay beside the tag, you dps people on the way and you heal allies to. When im zerging i usually dont change skills since all of the skills i use is tested and proven…roaming on the other hand yes change on the fly…(ex. fighting a necro, bring hard CC)
7) at 1 point i had 5 sets of armor, but as of now only got 3…1 zerk for pve, 1 rabids, 1 mix knights/cavs/soldiers(need to get certain stats high and some not needed so mixing is crucial)…..but if anything id say get rabids first.
8) everywhere….played engi from beta and release….playing in pve helped me with combo fields, playing wvw zerging helped me aim grenades, playing pvp helped me do 1v1 fights and find my strengths and weakness…wvw roaming i learned to hate
- pu mesmers(cant kill you if you know what they do, but very annoying)
- Super ninja thiefs….like seriously the stealth in this game is so broken, its not smart play all they do is stealth then attack then stealth again….basically anything that stealths alot and can restart every fights is annoying.
9) engis dont excel at 1 thing, you gotta combine alot of skills to be effective, block attacks, knockbacks, blind, dodge, stuns….also if you pressure them with your offence you may not need to defend that much….gotta do them all depending on the situation.
10) Engis are fun….once you play its as a main, its hard to play something else and not get bored, its the playstyle, its unique to the engi that you cant seem to feel on other classes so you get bored….oh and yes we can do zerg fights, there are things engis can do the benefits the zerg, there just underappreciated scrub commanders only know to ask guards,wars,eles and necros…..the old GWEN….but honestly a good player behind any class makes the class good, a great player…..